Mastercard

In another sign the gap between baseball's rich and poor teams is growing, MasterCard announced sponsorship agreements yesterday with seven large-market teams. Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, the New York Mets and St. Louis signed deals that make MasterCard their preferred card. Last October, MasterCard agreed to a national marketing agreement with baseball. "These are teams that in the future, I think, will be at the top of baseball," said Bill Daily, MasterCard's vice president of sponsorships and events.

In a move aimed at giving credit card customers a better shake, the U.S. Justice Department yesterday sued Visa and MasterCard, accusing the world's largest providers of credit cards of limiting competition and consumer choice. Visa and MasterCard unfairly dominate the market and control which credit cards banks can issue, the Justice Department said in an antitrust lawsuit filed in federal court in New York. MasterCard, Visa and others argue, however, that the credit card industry already is a battlefield that benefits consumers.

You did it again. Racked up another colossal credit card bill. The $5,000 entertainment center is on there, along with the $1,500 wide-screen TV and the new computer system you just had to have. Just looking at the long bill makes you sweat and shiver. Funny thing is, the town fathers here couldn't be happier. In fact, they wouldn't mind if you only paid part of the bill, letting the interest rates kick in and crank up their payoff even more. Not that they want you in debt, mind you. Just that they're looking to make a quick buck off your purchases.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department yesterday sued the three largest U.S. credit-card companies for anticompetitive practices and reached a proposed settlement with two of them, MasterCard and Visa. In papers filed in federal court in Brooklyn, the Justice Department sued all three companies, saying they were attempting to insulate themselves from competition. At the same time, the Justice Department filed a settlement it has reached with Visa and MasterCard. Under the settlement, Visa and MasterCard agree not to prohibit merchants from offering customers discounts or rebates for using a particular kind of card.

Visa and MasterCard, the nation's credit card mainstays, conspired to monopolize and stall the introduction of a new type of plastic-payment card that could save merchants and consumers billions of dollars annually, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday by New York state Attorney General Robert Abrams. "The Visa-MasterCard combination has deprived merchants and consumers of what is an extremely useful, safe alternative to checks or cash," said Abrams. He said Visa and MasterCard established a joint venture for a "point-of- sale debit card," called Entree, but they allowed it to flounder to protect huge profits banks make on traditional credit cards.

A credit card scheme that victimized more than 150 Philadelphia- area consumers last year apparently has resurfaced at a new location under a new name, Pennsylvania Attorney General Ernie Preate Jr. said yesterday. In a suit filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, Preate charges that defendant Steve Carpenter doesn't deliver on his promise to get a Visa or Mastercard credit card for consumers who pay him a $139.50 fee. Neither the firm nor Carpenter could be reached yesterday.

Philadelphia shoppers next month will be bombarded with pleas to add another slice of plastic to their wallets. Starting the week of March 17, Sears will be mailing 1 million pre-approved applications to shoppers here, pleading with them to ask for the giant retailer's new Discover credit card. Is this a good deal? At least initially, the card will be accepted at fewer than 10 retailers locally besides Sears. Sears eventually wants Discover to compete with Visa and MasterCard.

In separate rulings yesterday, the Supreme Court turned away a challenge to the federal do-not-call registry, and rebuffed Visa and MasterCard's bid to bar member banks from issuing American Express and Discover credit cards. The do-not-call case ends telemarketers' efforts to invoke free-speech arguments to get the popular ban on unwanted phone solicitations thrown out. The court, without comment, let stand a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit that upheld the registry of more than 64 million phone numbers as a reasonable government attempt to safeguard personal privacy and reduce telemarketing abuse.

Hyatt Legal Services, the country's second largest law firm with 201 offices, announced yesterday that residents of Pennsylvania and seven other states can receive legal services for $10 a month, charged to their Citibank Visa or MasterCard. Sandra DeMent, director of legal services for Kansas City, Mo.-based Hyatt, said the firm will begin mailing applications for the program, called LawPlan, this month to Citibank's credit card holders in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Illinois, Oregon, California and Wisconsin.

For folks used to exchanging dollars for 10 francs, seeing the dollar slide to less than seven francs can be very depressing. The combination of declining currency values and inflation has made American visitors more than a little gun-shy and put a damper on shopping in Paris recently. Precisely for this reason, I've had several intrepid reporters roaming Paris looking for places at which to buy the most coveted French products at bargain prices. What follows is an updated list of sources around the City of Light.

In the cutthroat competition for credit-card travel perks, the US Airways-American Airlines merger has dealt a blow to American Express Platinum and Centurion cardholders. The day after the merger was approved, creating the world's largest airline, American announced that AmEx Platinum and Centurion cards would no longer provide free entry to US Airways and American's airport lounges, effective March 22. Only Citibank's Citi Executive AAdvantage "world elite" MasterCard will carry complimentary access to American Admirals and US Airways club lounges.

PATCO, the South Jersey-to-Philadelphia commuter rail line, will soon upgrade its "smart" fare card, but the move won't bring it any closer to compatibility with SEPTA's planned electronic fare system. PATCO plans to pay Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego $168,240 to upgrade card-readers at its fare gates to accommodate new versions of its "Freedom" cards that are implanted with an updated computer chip. The board of the Delaware River Port Authority, PATCO's parent, is expected to approve the purchase this month.

THE TREASURY Department has a March 1 deadline to get millions of people who receive benefit payments by mail to move to electronic delivery. Affected are those receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Veterans Affairs, Railroad Retirement Board or Office of Personnel Management benefits and other nontax federal payments. The government has been gradually phasing out paper checks to save money. It costs 92 cents more to issue a paper check than electronically depositing the benefit money.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department yesterday sued the three largest U.S. credit-card companies for anticompetitive practices and reached a proposed settlement with two of them, MasterCard and Visa. In papers filed in federal court in Brooklyn, the Justice Department sued all three companies, saying they were attempting to insulate themselves from competition. At the same time, the Justice Department filed a settlement it has reached with Visa and MasterCard. Under the settlement, Visa and MasterCard agree not to prohibit merchants from offering customers discounts or rebates for using a particular kind of card.

In separate rulings yesterday, the Supreme Court turned away a challenge to the federal do-not-call registry, and rebuffed Visa and MasterCard's bid to bar member banks from issuing American Express and Discover credit cards. The do-not-call case ends telemarketers' efforts to invoke free-speech arguments to get the popular ban on unwanted phone solicitations thrown out. The court, without comment, let stand a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit that upheld the registry of more than 64 million phone numbers as a reasonable government attempt to safeguard personal privacy and reduce telemarketing abuse.

Also in this column: Pay for performance Venture-capital headaches A 'boost' for thrifts Consultant gets cash Credit debate After 33 years as a nonprofit corporation owned by thousands of local banks and credit unions, MasterCard International is turning itself over to the multinational giants that now dominate the credit card business. MasterCard announced plans last week to scrap its old cooperative structure and issue stock to its largest member-banks.

To Robert Caldwell of East Oak Lane, the words looked golden. "You have been approved to receive a $3,000.00 credit card," said the unsolicited letter from a Los Angeles company, Nissan Bancorp. Caldwell, who is disabled and has had trouble getting credit, called the toll-free number immediately. He didn't flinch at the company's $287 fee. "They said if I overnighted it, they would get my credit card out to me in three or four business days," he said. Four months later, Caldwell is still waiting.

In a move aimed at giving credit card customers a better shake, the U.S. Justice Department yesterday sued Visa and MasterCard, accusing the world's largest providers of credit cards of limiting competition and consumer choice. Visa and MasterCard unfairly dominate the market and control which credit cards banks can issue, the Justice Department said in an antitrust lawsuit filed in federal court in New York. MasterCard, Visa and others argue, however, that the credit card industry already is a battlefield that benefits consumers.

In another sign the gap between baseball's rich and poor teams is growing, MasterCard announced sponsorship agreements yesterday with seven large-market teams. Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, the New York Mets and St. Louis signed deals that make MasterCard their preferred card. Last October, MasterCard agreed to a national marketing agreement with baseball. "These are teams that in the future, I think, will be at the top of baseball," said Bill Daily, MasterCard's vice president of sponsorships and events.

The $7.98 American Camper nylon gym bag had already been marked down $2 by the time Bernie Flick ran the customer's plastic debit card through the reader and handed over a pen to sign the receipt. But for Flick, owner of Bernie's Army & Navy in Vineland, it wasn't the end of the discounting. As that $7.98 charge made its way through the electronic payments system the other day - from Bernie's store, to Bernie's bank, to the customer's bank and back again - it shrank. When it finally landed back in Bernie's gross receipts, it was trimmed to around $7.86.